General Notices. — Foreign Notices. 151 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General JVotices. 



Scientific Fecundation. — Bradley, speaking of this subject, says that, on 

 the first opening of his tuUps, he took out all the stamens before the fa- 

 rina was ready to be scattered ; and thus, to use his own expression, 

 castrated the tulips, preparatory to impregnating the stigmas with the fa- 

 rina of other tulips. In like manner, he says, the blossoms of any other 

 plant may be castrated, and cross-fecundated. [JVeiv Improvement of Plant- 

 ing and Gardening, Philosophical and Practical, p. 14, 15.) It is generally 

 considered that this practice of cross-fecimdation is quite new, and was 

 fii'st eniployed by Mr. Knight ; but a careful perusal of the works of 

 Bradley and Agricola will show that scarcely any thing new has been 

 produced, during the present centmy, that was not known and practised 

 in the preceding one, perhaps earlier. — ( Gard. Mag., for Dec.) 



The superiority of sets of potatoes to whole ones has been fully proved by 

 several English cultivators. The crop has fallen off greatly Avithin the 

 last two years in Great Britain, and numerous experiments have been 

 instituted, which, although they have not given a result altogether satis- 

 factory, have shown that potato sets may lose their vital principle when 

 taken up before they have arrived at a certain degree of maturity. Mr. 

 Niven, in the Irish Gardener's and Farmers Magazine, thinks tliat tlie fail- 

 ure of the crop in L"eland may have been partly owing to some change 

 in the electric state of the atmosphere, and partly to the careless manner 

 in which the potato is treated atler it has been dug out of the gi'ound 

 till it is replanted. The superiority of whole potatoes to sets, when an 

 early crop is desired, has been proved by Mr. Niven, in the same paper ; 

 and also the superiority of sets to whole potatoes, Avhen the object is a 

 main crop, more especially when the bud, or rose end, as it is called in 

 Ireland, is used. This superiority of sets to whole potatoes has been al- 

 so proved by the experiments conducted in the Horticultural Society's 

 garden, and by various other cultivators. — [Ih.) 



Art. II. Foreis'n JVotices. 



Trifblium incamatum. — The culture of this species of clover has great- 

 ly Increased in different parts of Great Britain ; it stands heat and drought 

 exceedingly well, and has been found, in many cases, a valuable substi- 

 tute for lucerne and clover, which has been completely biu-nt up. We 

 hope its value will be tried in our climate. — Conds. 



Heaviest gooseberries for 1835. — Mr. Saul, in the Gardener's Magazine for 

 Dec, has given the weight of the heaviest kinds produced in 1835. He 

 states that they were lighter in this season than they have been for ten 

 years, owing to the very dry season. Fewer seedlings have also been 

 raised. Tlie following is the weight of the heaviest ones : — 



Red. Wonderful, 24 dwt. ; Companion. 23 dwt. 2 gr. ; Lion's Provider, 

 22 dwt. G gr. ; Lion, 22 Ciwt.—Yelloiv. Leader, 23 d\M;. 12 gr. ; Gunner, 21 

 dwt. 10 gr. ; Sovereign, 20 dwt. 20 gr. ; Two to One, 19 dwt. 22 gr. — 

 Green. Thumper, 20 dwt. 8 gr. ; Peacock, 20 dwt. 6 gr. ; Providence, 20 



